1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic messaging. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for managing the delivery of electronic messages.
2. Related Technology
Many people and businesses have found electronic messaging, such as emailing and instant messaging, a convenient method of communication because sending and receiving electronic messages can be easy.
Unfortunately, the ease with which electronic messages may be generated and sent has led to the development of unsolicited bulk electronic messages, better known as “spam.” Unsolicited electronic messages come from a large spectrum of different sources and often include commercial advertisements, political messaging, and other undesirable content including pornographic solicitations.
To many users, it seems that the number of unsolicited messages that they receive increases daily. Receiving unsolicited electronic messages is frustrating for many users because they must sort through each electronic message they receive. If they do not sort through their messages regularly, the number of unsolicited electronic messages may soon outnumber the desired electronic messages and make it difficult for a user to find certain electronic messages. Users are understandably frustrated that they must waste time sorting through unsolicited electronic messages that they receive daily. Even if simply deleting the unsolicited electronic messages, users can waste significant amounts of time.
Once started, this flood of unsolicited electronic messages is difficult to stop. Senders of bulk unsolicited electronic messages are difficult to track down because they typically fabricate a sender's electronic address or refrain from including a sender's electronic address altogether. Also, because a bulk address list (depending on how large it is) can be a valuable commodity for use or for sale, holders of bulk address lists typically refuse to remove any address from a list, which would reduce the value of the list. Accordingly, persons that receive bulk unsolicited electronic messages are often unable to successfully request that their address be removed from a bulk address list.
With good reason, users have become wary of giving out their electronic addresses for fear that their electronic addresses will wind up in the hands of those who send unsolicited electronic messages.
For these reasons, users need a way to successfully prevent unwanted or unsolicited electronic messages from being delivered. Some attempts have been made to allow users to filter out unwanted and/or unsolicited electronic messages.
One method allows a recipient to block a sender's e-mail address by adding the sender's e-mail address to the recipient's list of unauthorized senders. However, this method falls short because the sender simply may fabricate a different e-mail address to circumvent the block. Further, before any e-mail from the sender is blocked, the recipient must view an e-mail from the sender, determine that it is unsolicited, and manually add the sender's e-mail address to the recipient's list of unauthorized senders.
Another method filters e-mail that includes certain words or phrases. For example, a recipient that frequently receives unsolicited offers for mortgage loans may add the phrase “mortgage rate” into a filtering component of the recipient's e-mail program. Subsequent e-mail that contains the phrase “mortgage rate” is filtered into a delete or trash folder.
However, this filtering method is flawed for many reasons. First, many unsolicited e-mail do not contain the filtered words and are thus delivered to the recipient. Second, some desired e-mail, which the recipient expects or wants to receive, may include the filtered words and thus may be filtered out. Accordingly, even if the filtering system correctly filters some unsolicited e-mail, the recipient must nevertheless review the entire set of filtered e-mail to determine whether any desired e-mail has been filtered out. Third, not only must the recipient spend time double-checking for erroneously filtered e-mail, but the recipient may also spend a significant amount of time setting up and maintaining the filtering system. Fourth, even if a recipient had the time to maintain the filters, many recipients lack the technical knowledge to be capable of (or to be comfortable with) managing this type of filtering system.